Editorial: Upgrade military's mental-health care

Saturday

Aug 12, 2017 at 5:00 AMAug 12, 2017 at 8:02 AM

A study released Monday by the Rand Corp. found that the U.S. military isn’t doing enough to prevent suicides among service members.

The issue isn’t unique to the military, of course. But the mental health of our young people, especially our military, should be paramount, especially since President Donald Trump pledged in his campaign that reducing military suicides would be a priority.

“The whole mental-health issue is going to be a very important issue when I take over and the (Department of Veterans Affairs) is going to be fixed in so many ways but that’s going to be one of the ways,” Trump told a veterans group. “And that’s in many respects going to be the No. 1 thing we have to do.”

Rand’s new evaluation of the medical care provided to more than 38,000 U.S. troops with depression or post-traumatic stress disorder in 2013 and 2014 showed that the military health system “excels” at screening for suicide risk and substance use but doesn’t provide adequate follow-up to troops with a suicide risk.

It found most service members received at least some psychotherapy, but that less than half of the counseling was evidence-based.

Let’s do better. Let’s hold Trump to his pledge.

— The San Diego Union-Tribune

Productivity project

could benefit government

The productivity revolution that drove the U.S. economy’s surge in the late 1990s has never reached the public sector. Thirteen years ago, the McKinsey consulting group concluded that “the opportunity to improve government productivity is huge (with) three classic management tools … organizational redesign, strategic procurement and operational redesign.” Yet that never happened.

In April, a new McKinsey report based on a study of 42 advanced nations concluded governments of the world could save a staggering $3.5 trillion a year if they adopted a “best practices” approach in areas like health care, education, public safety and tax collection. Yet no one’s holding their breath.

This backdrop is what makes former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s new big-data project so intriguing. The tech billionaire and Los Angeles Clippers pro basketball team owner has created an interactive website — USAFacts.org — that provides statistics on local, state and federal governments, what they spend their money on and how efficient they are at helping the public.

A column this week by Bloomberg’s Albert R. Hunt detailed how the website intends to compare how states handle the same problems.

This has potential to shake up a government status quo defined by inertia and resistance to significant change. Massachusetts has consistently been in the top three of rankings of state public education systems since it adopted comprehensive education reforms in 1993, which rigorously evaluate which programs actually improve student performance and use simple standards to assess how students, teachers, administrators and superintendents are handling their responsibilities.

In the private sector, companies would eagerly follow the lead of a firm with such an exemplary record. But not in government.

If Ballmer’s initiative helps change this mindset, Americans will be hugely in his debt.